AOE Saga: The Reluctant Dracopyre
by Cydra
Summary: The Ohana's crew land on the lengendary planet Mysthico. The twists this story will take will affect not only our heroes, but the magical half of the multiverse as well. Sequel to the 6th chapter of Trogs & Wristbands and coauthored with largefish8.
1. Abandon Ship

AOE Saga:

The Reluctant Dracopyre

Chapter 1: Abandon Ship

The Ohana had recently been equipped with a new D-drive for dimensional travel. The Ohana was currently testing its new drive to cruise through the gap between the dimensions. It was a bit hazardous because you could take a wrong turn and end up in something resembling Hell, if not the actual thing. Therefore, Matt and Chip were in charge of piloting the ship.

Eventually Matt got bored and wondered what the others were doing right now. He turned to Chip and said, "Do you think you can take over while I check on the others." "No problem," said Chip. Matt switched the controls to Chip and left the bridge. He went over to the mess hall where they were. He opened the door to see Lilo, Stitch, Draco, and Morph playing poker. "Hi Matt," said everybody. "What are you guys doing?" "Poker," said Stitch dealing out a card. "Mind if I play next game?" "I don't know," said Lilo, "Morph has a really good poker face."

Matt looked at Morph to see that his face was literally a blank slate. "Even we're not sure how he does it," said Draco, "but you better stay out or you'll get wiped out." After that everyone laid their hands down. Lilo had three queens and two nines. Stitch had three jacks, an ace, and a six. Draco had two kings, two eights, and a ten. Morph had the royal flush. As Morph raked in the chips, everyone groaned and said, "That's the seventh time in a row." "Who wants ice cream?" asked Morph, "my treat."

Then Chip's voice came over the intercom, "Matt, could you give me a hand in leaving the rift?" Matt pressed the button to reply back and said, "I'll be right there." He went to the bridge along with Morph who wanted to cash in his chips. Matt sat down in the pilot's chair and took back control. "Computer," he said, "locate closest portal to the dimension we left." The computer showed a kind of diagram and highlighted a part that was coming up.

Matt steered the ship neatly through the space-time continuum and back into the dimension where they'd started. "Nice and smooth," said Matt. Morph looked out the window and yelled, "Duck!" "Don't tell me we flew into a nest of those giant space ducks again," said Chip. "No, the other meaning." Matt and Chip looked out the window and saw a kind of transport ship coming right at them. They screamed and Matt jack-knifed out of the way. The transport ship narrowly avoided them. "What was that?" asked Matt. "I don't know, but it looks in bad shape," said Chip. Matt looked out the window and saw that the engines of that ship looked worm-eaten, literally, and that there were several dents in it.

Matt thought for a minute, turned on the communicator, and contacted the ship, "This is the timeship Ohana, do you need assistance?" The ship transmitted replied, "Yes, do mind if I come on board? I'll require your largest room." Matt paused uncertainly and said, "Uh, sure, you could the cargo bay, that should be big enough." "Perfect, link up to my ship and I'll be right over." As the transmission ended, Matt asked, "What was that about?" "I don't know," said Chip, "but the voice rings a bell."

Soon afterwards, the Ohana was linked to the ship. Everyone gathered around the entrance to see who would come aboard. As the chute opened, Matt said, "Welcome to the timeship……HOLY SMEG!" He stared wide-mouthed at what was probably the largest alien lifeform Matt ever seen. It resembled a 15-foot dragon with its wings on its front legs. By the look of those double-elbowed wings, they probably had a wingspan of at least 30 feet. It was wearing a bluish-gray armor over its torso and a technological-looking choker on its 5-foot neck. It bent its large head, which had brown hair with green highlights that was parted by a frill-like spine, towards Matt who was slowly going white and said, "Are you the captain of this ship?" "Nnnngh," was all Matt could say.

Lilo, Stitch, Draco, and Chip suddenly cried, "Stephen!" Stephen looked around in surprise and said, "Stitch, Draco, Chip, what are you guys doing here? And who's she?" "I'm Lilo." Stephen shook his head in amazement and said, "I think there's a lot of explaining to do here. But while we're telling it, do you mind transporting this ship to the planter Mysthico?"

Soon everyone was in the cargo bay, slurping ice cream floats, except for Matt who was having a strong coffee to calm his nerves. Tales were told of what had happened after Stephen left Earth, about Lilo's mutation, Piton Toxico and Virustocron's unexpected reappearance as an amalgamation, NegaMorph's creation, Splicer, and the recent bout on Nocturnus-13. Matt, in turn, was told about Stephen's transformation into a Dracon because of the recently cursed Drac Omnitrix. After the lengthy storytelling, Matt said, "So you can't get if off, you can't change back into a human, and you're on your way to Mysticos to see if the Dracons there can help you?" Stephen nodded. "So did you find out who cursed you?" "Sure did," said Stephen, "it was Echidra."

Draco was drinking some of his ice cream float through his ice mouth when Stephen was saying this and suddenly spat it out. The soda hit Morph and froze him to the wall like frozen carbonite. "Echidra!" said Draco, "how can you be sure?" "Easy," said Stephen, "she met me face to face then sent out her Waste-crawlers after me." "What are Waste-crawlers?" asked Lilo. "They're large demonic worms about four feet long and bright red. They have six tusk-like mandibles in their mouths, which they can spit acid out of." "Can't be worse looking than this," said Chip, tapping Morph in his frozen state.

Suddenly there was an alert on the intercom: "Entering Mysthico atmosphere. Unidentified craft detected." "Show us a visual," said Matt. A hologram was shown of a small spaceship heading straight for the Ohana. It extended several mechanical tentacles and grabbed one of the engines. Everyone was shaken as the Ohana was stopped. Stitch was thrown to the other side of the room where he crashed into Morph and broke him out of his frozen cocoon. "We gotta get out of here," said Stephen.

Matt ran to the bridge and jumped into the controls. A screen said, "Warning. Boarding tube approaching…" Matt grabbed the controls and tried to pull the ship loose. "Warning. Power levels dropping…" said the computer. Matt looked at the screen showing the other ship. The tentacles had impaled the engines and were glowing. In addition, Waste-Crawlers, by Stephen's description, were crawling out of the ship and started eating the engine. "Ooookay, that's new," he said, "time for the usual plan." He opened a small box on the control panel, revealing a row of switches marked with skull and crossbones motives.

He finished flicking them all as everyone else came in. "What are you doing?" asked Lilo. "I'm starting the self-destruct sequence," said Matt. "Ok," said Draco, "V-627's taken over again. Chip, pass me the mallet." "No, I'm not," said Matt, "we can't get away from these things, they're latched onto the ship and we don't have enough power. We can get into the shuttle and head for Mysthico while they go out with the explosion." "But the Ohana," said Stitch. Matt looked at Stitch and said, "She's only a ship."

Around that time, Chris walked into the room. "Can't a guy get any sleep without being waked up by collisions?" Then Chris took one look at Stephen and made a scream. Then he took on a karate attack position. "Chris," said Matt, "this is our friend, Stephen." There was a brief introduction both ways and then Chris said, "Sorry about that. I hadn't been surprised like that since that time someone put a Banshee Worm in my closet."

_Flashback:_ Chris was going into his room after a long day of training. He went over to his closet to change into different clothes on account that the clothes he was wearing right now were sweaty. Just before he opened it, he heard giggling. He paused and looked around. When he didn't see anything, he shrugged his shoulders and opened the closet door. Instantly, one of those bat-winged, tentacle creatures from the Null Void came out of the closet and attacked Chris. As Chris screamed in terror, Draco and Porkchop were sitting in the hallway, laughing their heads off. _End flashback._

"Heh, heh, that was a good one," said Draco. "What did you say?" asked Chris. "Nothing," said Draco quickly. Then Chris said to Matt, "So you're telling me we have to abandon ship because a sorceress sent some mutant worm-things after us?" "Yep," said Matt as he continued working on the self-destruct program. "How can you expect me to believe that?" asked Chris. Suddenly, a couple of Waste-Crawlers burst through the floor. "I'll get it," said Morph. Then Morph activated the mallet in his TechPack and whacked all the Waste-Crawlers. The creatures turned tail and left. Chris looked at Matt and said, "You know what, I believe you."

Matt pressed the last button and the computer chimed, "Countdown duration please." Matt shrugged and typed in 5 minutes before pressing, "Engage." He looked at everyone. "Now just go. As captain, I get to go down with the ship…" An ear splitting ripping sound from the security monitor station got everyone's attention. A chainsaw and the blades of two scythes were cutting a T-shaped rip right through a meter- thick bulkhead like cardboard. Then two metal claws opened up the hole to reveal Massacrate and a swarm of Waste-Crawlers coming in. All of Matt's self-preservation reminded him that there was plenty of room on the shuttle for him as well. "Then again…there's time to be brave and there's time to be a complete coward…the shuttle's this way," he said leading the way.

Shuttle Bay 

Matt opened the hatch on the 'shuttle'. An old empire mobile command center called the Harbinger that he'd 'borrowed'. He looked back at the Ohana. "See ya, old girl," he muttered. Chris said, "You ok?" Matt sighed. "Yeah. Let's go," and got into the shuttle. Chip was reading the instructions in the co-pilot seat. Matt sat down and powered up the engines. He began to turn the chip to face the closed bay door. "Er…shouldn't those be OOOPEN?" The last word was shouted as Matt unintentionally sent the ship straight through the closed door with a loud crash and out into the atmosphere. "Meh. Doors are for people with patience," said V-627 in his ear. "What about sanity?" Matt thought back. "What was that for?" asked Chip. "Sorry," said Matt, "V-627 made me do it." Chip glared at Matt and said, "I don't know what's worse about V-627, his cruelty, his bloodlust, or his insanity." Then Chris came into the cockpit and said, "Can we wait for my stomach to catch up with me?" Suddenly he gulped and said, "Never mind, it caught up, but it's not feeling good."

Bridge 

The door to the deserted bridge was blown clean off its hinges and Massacrate walked inside followed by several Waste-Crawlers. "Where's the crew?" shouted Massacrate angrily. Then one of the Waste-Crawlers started chewing on the sensor console. "Don't eat it," said Massacrate, "use it to find the crew." The Waste-Crawler continued to gnaw on the console, oblivious to the countdown reading, "System lockdown. 01:32 to detonation," in Splitter.

Massacrate pulled out a small scrying glass and spoke some strange words. A second later, Echidra appeared. "What is it?" she said. "There is nobody on the ship, mistress. It is deserted." "Then they must have escaped," said Echidra, "They'll have gone to Mysthico. I don't care about the others, but bring me that Dracon." The scrying glass went blank and Massacrate put it away. Then he noticed the message on the console and asked, "What's this? It looks like Splitter. My Splitter's a bit rusty, but maybe I can translate it." He examined the console and said, "Curses," as the computer calmly said, "Detonation in 5…4…3…2…1…thank you."

The Ohana seemed to swell for a second before exploding in a giant ball of superheated plasma.

That's the first chapter. Before anyone flames me about the Ohana's destruction, it was largefish8's idea. Keep an eye out for the next chapter of this story. Please review.


	2. Mythological Biology 101

AOE Saga

The Reluctant Dracopyre

Chapter 2: Mythological Biology 101

The Harbinger zoomed down through the atmosphere of Mysthico. It touched down on the surface, in the middle of a jungle. Everyone got out to see what sort of place this was. Chris looked at all of the bright colors of the native flora and said, "I guess the phrase, 'toning it down' doesn't exist here." Morph sniffed some pretty plants that were growing on a bush and said, "I wonder what kind of bush is this?" Suddenly a carnivorous mouth opened up in the bush and ate Morph. "Apparently, it's a Luring Gobbler Bush," said Stephen. Suddenly the Bush made a face and spat Morph back out. Morph stood up nonchalantly and said, "I'm back, baby." "How'd he do that?" asked Chris. "Plasma-based creatures are capable of secreting a natural chemical that irritates the stomach cells of a wide variety of creatures," said Chip. Chris blinked and said, "What?" Chip sighed and shortened his statement to; "Eating plasma blobs make you throw up." "I learned that the hard way," said Draco.

Matt checked his transmitter to see if there were any civilized places nearby. Suddenly the device let off a beeping sound in confirmation. "I picking up radio signals in that direction," said Matt. "No problem," said Draco, "we'll just take the Harbinger over there." Suddenly there was rustling in the bushes on the other side of the clearing. A band of small monsters came out and started inspecting the Harbinger. They all wore coats and hats that looked like they were from around the era of the Revolutionary War, except the hats were a ruddy red. Some of the hats were brighter shades than others. "What are those things?" asked Lilo. "Redcaps," said Draco, "they're a type of goblin that draw their power from the hats that they wear." "Why are their hats red?" asked Stitch. "That's the color of the blood they dip them into to fuel their powers." Matt made a face and said, "That's disgusting!" Chip rubbed the part where his chin would be and asked, "I wonder if oil would work the same way?" "Why do you ask?" "Because that's apparently what they're trying find out." They looked at the redcaps and saw that they were now attacking the Harbinger. "Hey!" yelled Matt; "I rightfully stole that ship!" "The others gave him odd looks and Matt quickly said, "I mean bought." Regardless to Matt's statement, they all charged the redcaps.

The redcaps were naturally surprised by our heroes' sudden attack. They were equally surprised by the wide variety of powers they possessed. But it wasn't until Stephen unleashed his plasma-fire did they decide to retreat. Draco brushed the dust off his hands and said, "Well, that was easy. But let's get out of here before something else comes." "Like what?" asked Lilo. Suddenly they heard the sound of enormous footsteps. "Sounds like Gantu's species," said Stitch. Suddenly there was the snapping of branches and the treetops moved aside. They looked up into the face of a forty-foot creature covered in moss, bushes, and even small trees. "That's a forest giant," said Draco, "I think it wants the Harbinger." "Oh no, it's not," said Matt. The giant looked at Matt with his sleepy little eyes and then opened its mouth what they thought was a yawn. Instead a gigantic fireball erupted out. Everyone nearly got out of the way. "Must be the fire salamander-eating type," said Draco. The giant leaned forward to grab the Harbinger. "You know what," said Matt, "I think that running is good exercise, don't you?" Then our heroes left the clearing, leaving the forest giant with its prize.

The next couple of hours walking didn't really improve spirits. "Are we there yet?" asked Lilo and Stitch for the umpteenth time. "No, we're not; we still have a way to go." "This jungle is killing me," said Chris, wiping the sweat from his forehead. Morph, who had several thorns, burrs, and parasitic insects stuck to his back, said, "What are you complaining about?" Suddenly a shadow passed over them. They looked up to see some large with wings blocking out the sun. "What's that up in the sky?" asked Matt. "It's a bird," said Lilo. "It's a plane," said Draco. Suddenly the shape flew down and revealed itself to be a roc. The roc grabbed Chip and flew off with him. "No wait, you're right," said Draco; "it is a bird." "I'll get him," said Stephen. He spread his wings and took off. As the others waited, they heard the roc squawk and then Stephen started coming down for a landing. "Wow," said Matt, "that was quick." "Yeah," said Chip as he climbed down from Stephen's back, "that roc was actually willing to give me up when Stephen caught up to it." "Why?" "Because I played a requiem on my violin and it was moved by my music." "You play the violin?" "Like a devil."

"Wait a minute," said Lilo, "why don't we just fly on Stephen and Draco to wherever those radio signals are coming from." "'Cause Mr. Stubborn Bull refuses to ride on anything living," said Draco pointing at Chris. "This place is crazy enough without me risking my neck on something that can make a mistake thirty feet in the air. If I'm flying, it'll be in a ship." Just then, a melodic sound that resembled a mix between a flute and a horn came through the trees and several small animals started running away from one direction. "Then I'm sure you'd like to run instead of fly away from those deadly manticores," said Draco. "What's so bad about manticores?" asked Stephen. "Nothing much besides the triple rows of teeth, the ripping claws, and the poison barbs they throw from their tails." Suddenly, as if on cue, three barbs came out of the trees and stuck into Morph, who promptly swelled up like a balloon. "Still don't like the idea," said Chris. Chip groan in exasperation and poked Chris on the side of the neck. Chris stiffened, said, "I hate that trick," and fell over out-cold. As Draco put Chris's unconscious body on Stephen's back, he said, "Why did we have to bring him on that test flight in the first place?" By then the sound of the manticores was growing louder so everyone got onto Stephen's back, except for Lilo, Stitch, and Chip who got on Draco's back. They quickly took off before the manticores got there.

As they were flying through the air, Matt asked, "Why are there so many creatures from Earth mythology here?" "It's an interesting story," said Stephen, "you might not be aware of it, but Earth still has plenty of magical creatures on it. They and humanity used to live side-by-side until the humans became too fearful of the magical creatures' strange powers and drove them off. Also, unknown to the humans and most magical creatures, Earth had a connection with Mysthico, but the natives of Mysthico decided to withdraw their union with Earth until a better time. And several of the magical creatures left Earth to live on Mysthico, and they've apparently prospered." "How can you know so much about magical creatures?" asked Lilo, "you've only been a Dracon for five months top." "Actually, my family's has had a very close connection to magic. In fact, I'm a distant descendant of Odysseus." "That's very interesting," said Matt. Suddenly, the transmitter went off again and Matt held it up. "The source of those radio signals is straight ahead, two miles off." They kept flying until they saw a bright and sparkly city up ahead. "Finally," said Chip, "some civilization." "And something to help my swelling," said Morph. "Is that what manticore venom does?" asked Lilo. "No," said Draco, "that's just an allergic reaction."

Stephen set them down in what had been the main square. Burn craters were all over the place and some buildings had holes in them. "Wow…we missed the party," muttered Matt. As the others looked around, Matt went into a deserted security station and called up the NSSC database.

**FILE OPEN…SUBJECT: Mythicos/Species**

Matt clicked on that and listened as the file began

**The dominant lifeform on Mythicos is a close relation of the Earth species, _Draco Nobalis _and are known as Dracons These creatures seem to be able to use what has been referred to by some experts as 'Magic' and have a rich selection of myths…Do you wish to know more?**

Matt looked at that and pressed the relevant button. "Maybe it'll reveal why that crazy Chainsaw thing's here…and why they wanted my ship." He said to himself.

A long list of Dracon legends appeared. Matt skipped down the list till something caught his eye. "Dracopyres?" he muttered and tapped it

**Dracopyres…**

**The legend of the Dracopyres is not pleasant and as most legends are based off of fact has worried many tactical analysts in the NSSC.**

**The legend goes that long ago a force known as 'The Dark Ones' invaded Mythicos in force. The two sides quickly ended up in stalemate. This ended when the 'Dark Ones' created a creature from 'the essences of the blood moon's minions'. These Dracopyres were said to be made from combined essences of Dracons, Werewolves and Vampires. After a long war, the Dracopyres and their masters were driven off. **

**While this is naturally impossible, records and archeological teams have found evidence of some kind of large scale planetary bombardment consistent with planetary assault…**

Matt clicked it off. "The NSSC are in for a big surprise soon enough." He looked out at Stephen. "Prototype," he said to himself. "Hey," said a familiarly evil voice behind him from an active laser cell. Matt turned and grinned. "NegaMorph, you little evil blob you. How'd you get where you belong?" he said leaning in. NegaMorph rolled his eyes, which is hard to tell with his pupil-less eyes, and said, "Dr. Johnson was testing this new teleportation belt on me. It's supposed to help soldiers invade enemy strongholds. The only problem was instead of sending me to the other lab, it sent straight to this place. I didn't have enough power to go back and the Dracons captured me." NegaMorph looked elsewhere and said, "Funny thing was they weren't all that familiar with genetic experiments, couldn't figure out what I was. Apparently on the spiritual plane, I'm completely unidentifiable. That's probably why those things passed me by." "What things?" asked Matt suspiciously. "Those monsters that attacked the city."

Matt's train of thought quickly went back to the state of the city. "What happened here anyway? And where is everybody?" NegaMorph shrugged his shoulders and said, "Killed, taken away, or left to safer places, that was their choices. It wasn't too long after they caught me did the city get attacked by these worm-like things. The Dracons fought back of course and squashed many of the creatures. But then the monsters must have had some physiological weapon of some sort, because all the Dracons started flying away screaming. The monsters ransacked the place after that."

Matt rubbed his chin and said to himself, "I wonder what the Dracons had that those creatures wanted." NegaMorph scoffed and said, "They weren't after the Dracons' technology, they were after the Dracons." "What?" said Matt, completely surprised. "Yep, one of the Dracons fell not to far from the doorway there. Some kind of demon came to collect it, but the Dracon said, 'You'll never have me,' and cut his own throat. Fortunately that demon didn't see me; my reflection didn't even give me away. It left after that." Matt pondered over this new information. The creatures were after the Dracons, but why? According to NegaMorph, who admittedly wasn't that reliable a source, those monsters wanted the Dracons alive, not dead. What use would they be for? Then the part of the worm-creatures clicked something in his head. Hadn't he just encountered worm-monsters not too long ago?

As he stared around the room in thought, he noticed that there weren't any reflective surfaces anywhere. Matt grinned and said, "Thought you could trick me didn't you?" "Eh?" "You were telling me lies to try to fool me?" "What would I get from lying?" asked NegaMorph. "You said that your reflection escaped that demon's notice, but there's nothing to reflect on in here." "Yeah, I know that, I was talking about my reflection of that demon's face." Matt felt some of the color come out of his face, "Wh-what?" "Oh yeah, that demon I mentioned, it was kind of like a winged mirror with one eye. Just looked at me and passed on by." Matt wasn't looking at NegaMorph now, he was seeing himself being led through the forests of Nocturnus-13 by four demonic artifacts. Now Matt was seeing a connection: those worm-creatures that attacked the city must have been Waste-Crawlers and the mirror-demon must have been Fiendglass. And Massacrate and some Waste-Crawlers had attacked the Ohana, looking for Stephen. And who was the commander of these creatures? The answer was Echidra.

NegaMorph coughed politely and said, "You can let me out now." Matt's attention snapped back to NegaMorph, "What?" "I answer all your questions and you will let me out as payment." Matt gave a laugh and said, "So you can stab me in the back first chance you get? Not gonna happen." As Matt walked out of the security station, NegaMorph yelled, "You can't leave me here!" "You're right," said Matt, "as soon as we find a ship to get off this planet, we'll take you to a nice, quiet prison." Behind him, Matt heard NegaMorph roar with rage.

The others were waiting patiently outside. Chris had by that time woken up. "What was that?" asked Chris. "That was NegaMorph," said Matt, "he's locked up in a laser cell." Chris laughed and said, "It's about time that thing was put behind bars." "Yeah, but we have more important things to worry about. It was Echidra's goons who attacked this city. They were after the Dracons." "But why?" asked Lilo. "I don't know, but I'm sure I don't want to find out. Massacrate must have attacked the Ohana because Stephen was onboard. They know we escaped the explosion and since this was the closest civilized place…" "That means they know we're here," finished Stephen. "Guess we'll have to take shifts sleeping," said Draco.

* * *

There's another chapter. Note the foreshadowing technique. You're going to be seeing some freaky things in the next chapter. Will try to update soon. Please review. 


	3. Midnight Fight

AOE Saga

The Reluctant Dracopyre

Chapter 3: Midnight Fight

Of course nothing much happened during the daytime, except for them finding a pharmacy to help Morph's reaction to the manticore quills. Slightly ironically, they found diluted quills used for acupuncture. But when night fell, that's when things got edgy. Like Draco said, everyone took shifts sleeping. But sleeping shifts is never easy. Especially if you have an enemy that might strike at any given moment. The tension was so thick; you could walk on it. The slightest shift in the shadows could make you jump. But it was all things of no consequence, or more importantly, danger. But that changed when it was Matt's second shift.

Matt was constantly looking around for any sign of danger. He couldn't help shivering with nervousness, or was that from those several coffees he drank to keep himself awake? Suddenly he thought he heard something. He stiffened but he didn't do anything yet. It could be some kind of city-dwelling vermin, like a raccoon, or an owl, or a Garzian Sewer Salamander. But then Matt noticed that there was a ghostly light and a slight clacking sound. Matt quickly remembered a group of zombies that attacked them not too long ago and the flickering candle-creature that created them. He nudged Chris who woke up with a start. "This has better be the real McCoy this time," he said. Then Chris noticed the ghost light and asked, "What the heck is that?" "Definitely not good," said Matt. They quietly sneaked out of the hotel lobby they were in and out into the streets. They heard the clacking getting nearer so they hid behind some garbage cans. They readied their blasters and prepared for a fight. "What kind of creatures do you think they are?" whispered Chris. "They're probably nothing but skin and bones," whispered Matt. Suddenly the garbage cans were thrown aside and the two turned around to face their enemy. Chris blinked and said; "I don't see any skin."

The creature that was getting ready to attack them was a skeleton. And by the looks of it, it belonged to a Dracon. The skeleton Dracon roared and swiped at Matt and Chris with its claws. They leaped out of the way and used a nearby fire escape to get out of harm's way. Matt kept climbing the stairs but Chris stayed where he was. "We have keep moving," said Matt, "you want that thing to catch us?" "Relax," said Chris, "it can't get to us. The membrane's rotted away so it's completely flightless." The Dracon skeleton spread its wings and a milky green fire filled up the gaps between the bones. It flapped them twice and took off. "You were saying?" said Matt. Chris nonchalantly fired his blaster at the skeleton, which shattered into several pieces. "See? Problem solved. Can we go back to bed now?" Suddenly the roar of several more Dracons filled the night air along with the sound of clacking bones. "Looks like an all-nighter to me," said Matt.

Meanwhile, the others had been woken up by the Dracon skeletons' roaring and were leaving the hotel lobby to find out what the ruckus was. "Can you keep it down?" yelled Chip. "Some of us are trying to sleep!" Suddenly Matt and Chris came running past them, screaming, Matt saying "Undead, why is it always the undead?" Stitch blinked and asked, "Where's the fire?" Suddenly a bolt of plasma-fire hit him in the head. Stitch shook his head until the flames were out and said, "Never mind, I found it." They looked in the direction the plasma-fire came from and saw several Dracon skeletons and Waste-Crawlers coming right at them. "That'll wake you up," said Lilo.

The Waste-Crawlers charged at our heroes, screeching, closely followed by the Dracon skeletons. Matt kicked the first Waste-Crawler in the face and shot the second one that tried its luck. He heard a 'Look out.' and ducked as a Dracon Skeleton was tossed into the wall behind him by Draco. Another one leapt down in front of Matt and whacked him hard, knocking him clean through the lobby doors and into Morph. They landed in front of the pharmacy they'd got the manticore venom cure from.

"Uh. They're tough for a load of old bones," groaned Matt, rubbing his head. He looked behind him through the pharmacy window to see a jar of fresh manticore quills and an idea came on in his head. "Oh Morph…" he said. "What, Matt?" answered Morph. "You're gonna hate for this idea but…" Matt said grabbing the jar…

………………………

Chris blasted yet another skeleton only to have it reconstruct. "This is dumb. We need to get 'em all at once." He yelled and noticed the ground was shaking. The skeletons and remaining Waste-Crawlers had noticed too and turned to look at the entrance. A low rumble could be heard and what sounded like someone singing the Indiana Jones theme tune badly. Suddenly the doors were demolished by what looked like Morph, swelled into a giant ball, closely followed by Matt who was running after him. Morph crashed into the unlucky skeletons, scattering their ones all over the lobby and flattening any Waste-Crawlers that were too slow or dumb to move.

"Strike!" yelled Matt happily, taking a vial of antidote from the pharmacy and injected Morph, making him shrink back to normal. Morph groaned dizzily "I'm never going on a rollercoaster again." Matt kicked one of the bones. "These damn necromancer wannabes and their dumb leader are really damaging my karma. As if we didn't have enough trouble with Silvia," he said angrily. Draco picked up one of the bones and said, "So these were those psychological warfare weapons NegaMorph mentioned. It must be pretty unnerving to be attacked by the corpses of your own kind." "Yeah," said Stephen, "but we should really think about what we do when Echidra sends… Is someone playing the xylophone?" Everyone looked over at Morph who was using a pair of tibias and a ribcage from one of the Dracon skeletons to play the xylophone. When he noticed everyone staring at him, he said, "What? I need to practice. And I left my drums on the BiNebular."

"What exactly do those guys want with Stephen anyway?" asked Lilo. Matt pondered on that and then remembered that legend he had read earlier. "I'm not sure, but there's a chance that it might involve the Dracopyres." Draco scoffed and said, "Those things have been extinct for millennia. The only way for a Dracopyre to come back is by a werepyre absorbing the essence of a dragon." Matt's eyes turned to the Drac Omnitrix and said, "Or the other way around."

Suddenly the clacking began again. "Morph," said Chris, "will you stop playing that stupid xylophone?" "I'm not doing anything," said Morph. And true enough, the bones were hopping along the ground towards Stephen. "Oh man," said Stitch, "I thought we were finished with those guys." Suddenly the bones leapt up, but they did not reform back into the skeletons. Instead, they constructed a cage around Stephen. There were some legs attached to the bottom so the cage started going out the door. "Oh, no, you don't!" yelled Matt and he blasted the cage. The blast made a small hole that was quickly repaired. The cage turned around and the skulls on the front released several plasma-fire blasts. Our heroes were thrown back by the barrage and the cage stepped through the hole that Morph had made previously. Wing bones extended from the cage and it flew off.

The others quickly followed it. Draco took to the skies after it. They had run three blocks when Draco came back. "What are you doing back here?" asked Chip. Draco panted and said, "Waste-Crawlers… shot acid at me… had to stop…" "Now how are we going to find them?" asked Stitch. "Actually they're in that building over there." They looked in the direction that Draco was pointing and saw a 20-story skyscraper with a thundercloud at the top. "You think we would have noticed that," said Morph. Chip quickly made long-ranged calculations and said, "I've got an idea. My guess is that Echidra will have a lair on the top floor of that building. We'll split up into three groups so we won't all get easily caught. Draco, Morph, and I will fly towards the top from the outside. Lilo and Stitch will go through the ventilation system. Matt and Chris will go inside and heads towards the top. At least one of our parties will be able to reach the top."

Matt and Chris approached the doors stealthily and readied their blasters. "What kind of guards are in there?" asked Chris. Matt peered through a window and saw that Echidra had decorated the ground floor with several kinds of snakes, no doubt poisonous. He turned to Chris and said, "Asps, very dangerous, you go first."

There's another chapter. I apologize about that slight improper language. The next chapter's going to have a duel that you will want to watch. Keep an eye out for it. Please review.


	4. Showdown with Doom

AOE Saga

The Reluctant Dracopyre

Chapter 4: Showdown with Doom

Matt and Chris burst through the doors and opened fire on the snakes. The snakes were vaporized before they could sink their fangs into them. "We better use the stairs," said Matt as he crushed the last viper beneath his boots. "Why?" asked Chris. Matt made a scissors-like snipping motion with his fingers and then made his hand drop slowly accompanied by a whistling. When his hand reached the bottom, Matt said, "Splat." "Ah," said Chris, his imagination supplying the visual details, "stairs it is then."

Matt and Chris started their trek up the stairs. They found a lot of Waste-Crawlers there, along with bat-like leeches, giant jellyfish-like creatures, and a small demon waving a pitchfork around. They went through these things easily but then there came a hard part.

The staircase has suddenly branched into two. One going left and the other going right. Chris looked at the two sets of stairs and asked, "Which way do we go?" "We'll have to split up," said Matt. Chris fished a coin out of his pocket and said, "All right then, heads I go left, tails you go right." He flipped the coin and caught it. "Tails, you go right." Matt bounded up the right stairway while Chris went up the left one. Suddenly Matt paused as realization dawned and said, "Hey! Wait a minute!" He turned towards the left stairway, but Chris has already gone. Matt cursed and continued his way up.

After 30 minutes of stairs, Matt was thinking that the lifts might have been worth the risk…for at least part of the journey up. He'd reached floor thirteen when a flash of light from down the hall got his attention. "The smeg?" he muttered, drawing his blaster and walking forward.

He approached the door where he'd seen the flash and nudged the door open. The room looked like a cross between a jewelry store and his old ships armory. "Wow," he said, stopping to look at a strange rune covered diamond sat next to a double bladed battleaxe. "Like it?" said a voice that reminded Matt of sabers. He turned to see the horrible (and still slightly blackened in places) skull-face of Massacrate. "You! But I thought that you were..." Matt said backing up. "…Destroyed by that explosion?" finished Massecrate. "When will you get if through that thick human skull of yours that I am immortal? I can't be destroyed that easily. All you did was cost us a couple of Waste-Crawlers. Nevertheless..." His eye-sockets began to glow red in anger and he finished "…that did hurt a bit. I think I should return the favor."

At this the Doom Weapon of Death leapt at Matt, swinging both his sickles at Matt's head. Matt just managed to duck but was lifted off his feet by a vicious punch to the chest that lifted him into the air. He got to his feet unsteadily. "S that all you've got?" he panted. Part of Matt's brain said. "Just one attack and already you're exhausted…This isn't good." The other half argued "You gonna let some walking overgrown hedge cutter kick you around?"

Matt pulled out his Ion Staff and activated it. Massacrate looked at Matt's weapon and laughed cruelly. "You really think you can stop me with that, human?" he said nastily as Matt ran at him, aiming a slash which was blocked and followed by a stab with his chainsaw blade. Matt narrowly avoided the whirling blade but overdid his balance in the process. He got up and was just in time to avoid a downward slash that would have sliced him in half. He brought up his staff in time to block the returning swing. 

Matt backpedaled out of range for a second. Massacrate laughed nastily and said "Maybe I'll keep you alive long enough to watch your friends dealt with." He said before attacking again. Matt managed to block the slashes and he thought back to when the Walking Blades had told them about the Doom Weapons. 'Weakness…what was Massacrate's weakness again?' he thought blocking and parrying the Doom Weapons attacks.

Massacrate growled and said "Stay still and die." As Matt continued to dodge or block the attacks. "That's not much incentive to stay still," countered Matt. Massecrate lifted his left hand and a blast of black shimmering energy shot at Matt, who just dodged in time. The wall that the blast hit melted. Matt looked at that wide eyed. "Oooh boy." He said. He ducked another slash and got an idea. 'Those mech arms of his look plasma gun equipped. I gotta idea.' He then laughed at Massecrate. "Hah. Can't hit me if I'm outta arms reach."

Massacrate's eye sockets flashed red. "OH NO?" he snarled, sounding like a chainsaw rev. Some of the blue flames around his chainsaw blade focused on the end of one of his hands and became a plasma orb…which shot at Matt. Matt dived out the way and raised his hand which glowed, causing the orb to stop. "Hah…back at ya, stupid," he said grinning before causing the orb to shoot back into Massacrate's face.

When Massacrate had cleared his eyes he saw Matt had just finished a swipe. He turned to follow and felt a suspicious looseness in the neck area. Red light began to spill from where the Ion Staff had hit. 'How dare he vanquish me?' thought Massacrate and managed to launch a curse before Matt could react. Matt staggered back waiting for something awful to happen as Massacrate began laughing. After nothing happened apart from a slight light headed feeling he said "I think that was a dud…dufus." Massacrate laughed as he began to dissolve "Oh…you'll find out otherwise soon enough…" and laughed till he'd vanished.

Matt shrugged, muttering "Wacko." Before spotting the rune covered crystal from earlier. He picked it up and peered at it for a sec, muttered "Might be worth something on a commerce station." before pocketing it and running back to the stairs to continue up.

**With Chris… **

Chris blasted a Waste-Crawler sentry and ran up yet more steps. "How many stairs does this place have?" he grumbled. A green flash a few floors up got his attention. He looked up and pressed against the wall as a load of debris went by. "Oh great…I hope that wasn't what I thought it was," he muttered.

A flight later he found it was. Where the next two flights should have been were just half melted supports. "Damn it," Chris muttered and got off. "Guess me and Matt'll be going up together," he said and headed down the hallway. The corridor ended at a pair of double doors marked 'Conference Hall'. "Guess it's through here," muttered Chris and walked in.

The room beyond was coated in what seemed like wax. "Someone'll lose their cleaning bill over this," muttered Chris when his motion tracker beeped. A child-like voice said. "Oh…a visitor…will you stay and play a while? My other friends didn't last at all." Chris got a closer look at some of the wax. An extremely dead looking Dracon was in the wax. He looked around to where the voice had been.

A voodoo doll was standing there. "Poppet…sorry, freako…I don't play with dolls," said Chris, training his gun on the Doom Weapon of Famine. "Oh…a shame," said Poppet, disappointed and said "Ga'koloa." A red beam hit Chris and suddenly it felt like he'd been set alight. "Yargh." He yelled. Poppet giggled. "Are we having fun yet?" she said.

"Nope…let's try tag. You're it," said Chris, aiming and firing three neat bursts at Poppet. To his horror, the plasma orbs fizzled out just before impact. Poppet yawned. "Try again mortal." She said. Chris growled, his eyes going yellow as he went into feral mode. He ran at the Doom Weapon, readying his claws for a strike. Before he hit, he got a shock as his feral mode turned off. His normal fist connected and came away with small, but barbed needles in it. Poppet laughed and blasted him into the opposite wall. "I can drain your adrenaline from you and even the energy from your plasma gun. Surrender and maybe I'll make it quick," she said.

Chris pulled the pins out of his hand and ducked in time to avoid a fatal spray of needles from Poppet. The shot rebounded and hit a water pipe for the sprinkler system. A jet of water sprayed over Poppet for a second before the building computer sealed the leak but the effect on Poppet was interesting. Only her arm was hit but it swelled like a balloon. "Gah…stay still and die," she said angrily, firing at Chris as he ran to the cover of the large conference table. Hmm…I wonder he thought and spotted a fire hose on the wall behind him. He ducked out and grabbed it. "Hey, Poppet…thirsty?" he said ducking up and opening the hose full blast on Poppet. The spray knocked her off her blobby feet and into the wall…and caused her to swell even bigger then Morph had when he'd been struck by the manticore.

"Argh…how? No matter, my brothers and Echidra's new toy will finish you and your little…" she yelled angrily but Chris interrupted her. "Ah, shut up." He said and fired, this time the shot wasn't stopped and hit dead center, making her pop and spray water everywhere. The opposite door burst open and Matt came in. "The smeg? Chris? What happened?" he said seeing the scorch marks and vanishing bits of Poppet. "Poppet happened…how'd you do?" answered Chris. "Oh…met Massacrate again and dealt with him. C'mon. Let's go. Don't want the others to have all the fun do we?" he said and they both headed back to the staircase Matt had been using.

**Meanwhile, with the experiments…**

Draco continually looped around the building with Chip and Morph on his back. "Do you have to go around and around like that?" asked Morph. "I have to circle to gain altitude," said Draco, "I can't fly straight up with you two on my back." "Draco's right" said Chip, "although I do feel a bit queasy." "Spew on me," said Draco, "and you better learn how to fly fast."

But when they reached the thirteenth story, there was suddenly a screech from above. "That doesn't sound good," said Chip. Suddenly, several Dracon skeletons swooped down from above and started firing plasma fire at our heroes. Draco took evasive maneuvers and returned fire. A good many of the skeletons fell, but more kept coming. Even with Chip using his viral blasts and Morph with his TechPack didn't help much. Suddenly the skeletons parted to let something past.

It was a hand mirror with two bat-like wings on the sides of its glass. The mirror's single eye and the crack on the glass that served as a mouth showed malicious content. Holding the mirror's clawed leg was the disembodied human hand that had gone sickly green with age and decay. Embedded in the hand was a candle that produced a large milky green flame. The flame had a wispy face on it and two tibia bones on the sides for arms. "Fiendglass," said Draco. "And Corpselight," said Chip. "You remember us," said Fiendglass with his voice of sharpening knives, "isn't that nice? And we came just in time to watch your minions finish them off, right Corpselight?" Corpselight chuckled and said with a flickery voice, "It's surprising what useful things you find in a cemetery."

"Yeah, yeah," said Draco, "get out of our way so we can be save our friend." "Ah yes," said Fiendglass, "the Drac Omnitrix-wearer. Echidra's almost done with him." "What is she doing?" demanded Chip. "Something that will create the cornerstone of an unbeatable army. Although it has required a couple of tests." "What kind of tests?" asked Morph. Corpselight waved at the skeletons and said, "Some of these are fresher than others, they just couldn't withstand the tests." "You monsters!" growled Draco. "Thanks for the compliment, but you really shouldn't be talking about monsters like that," said Fiendglass, "after all, weren't you all created to be monsters?" "Enough talk," said Corpselight, "Echidra might want the hybrid dragon for testing. I suspect the automaton can be a good servant and the blob will fit quite nicely in a curio bottle." "No one makes a knick-knack out of me!" yelled Morph.

The Dracon skeletons flew straight at our heroes. There were too many of the skeletons to be fought off. Draco flew over to the building and landed on the glass windows. He then used his gecko-like feet to climb at an alarming rate to the top of the skyscraper. Unfortunately, a force field prevented them from entering. Chip rested on a gargoyle and said, "Okay, how are we going to beat them?" "Corpselight controls these skeletons," said Draco, "if we take out him, they'll all fall to pieces, literally." "All right," said Chip, "but Fiendglass is too quick for us to hit. And he can reflect most of our projectile attacks. How do we get rid of him?" Suddenly the gargoyle underneath Chip grunted and said, "Excuse me, can you get off my back? Your feet are digging into the stonework." Chip quickly moved and said, "Sorry, didn't know you were alive." "We're not all the time," said the gargoyle, "but storms like this helps moisturize our skin. Then we can really move around." "Isn't that dangerous?" asked Morph. "Not as long as you don't get struck by lightning." Chip's eye lit up and said, "I have an idea."

Eventually, Fiendglass and Corpselight made it to the top of the skyscraper. The three experiments were sitting there nonchalantly. Draco looked up from filing his claws and said, "Oh look, the two weaklings are here." "Weaklings?" yelled Fiendglass, "we're much stronger than the lot of you combined." "Sure you are," said Chip, "wouldn't it have been easier for you to have come up in a cardboard box. Hey, it could say 'Fragile' in big letters on the side." "It's a wonder they made it up in the first place," said Morph.

"I can fly higher than you can!" yelled the Doom Weapon of War. "Why don't you put your money where your crack of a mouth is," said Chip. Fiendglass flapped hard and pulled himself and Corpselight up a couple of yards. "Are you sure you should be doing this?" asked Corpselight. "Yeah," yelled Chip, "you might want to bring a parachute." Fiendglass's pride would not tolerate this and rose higher into the air. "How's that?" he yelled, "pretty impressive?" "Yep," said Morph, "and pretty stupid." He turned into Sparky and created a nexus of magnetic electricity around him.

Fiendglass looked up at the thundercloud over the skyscraper and said, "Oh, heck." A lightning bolt, drawn by Morph's electrical magnetism, flashed down and struck the two Doom Weapons. Fiendglass shattered and the pieces vanished back to where they came from. Corpselight survived but was sent plummeting through the air. When he got within range, Draco shot a fireball at Corpselight. The Doom Weapon of Pestilence caught fire instantly and the hand and candle were reduced to ashes.

Without a power source or a place to burn from, the ghost fire went out and the ashes were banished. As soon as the last flake was sent back to wince it came from, the Dracon skeletons started loosing their enchanted life. Some of them managed to get to building tops, but most of them fell to the ground when Corpselight's magic dissolved. "It's all up to the others now," said Morph as he turned back to normal. "Anyone up for a game of poker?" asked the gargoyle. "You're going to regret that," said Chip as he started shuffling the cards.

There's another chapter. The first two fights were written by largefish8. If you think this chapter was action-packed, wait till the next one. Please review.


	5. Essence of Evil

AOE Saga:

The Reluctant Dracopyre

Chapter 5: Evil of Essence

Chris and Matt eventually reached the top floor without any further incidents. But there was a large door in their way. It looked like it was made of cast iron and sealed tight. "How are we going to get through this?" asked Matt. "Don't worry," said Chris, "I have a skeleton key." Then he blasted the door with his blaster until it cracked. "That's your answer to every obstacle, isn't it?" asked Matt. Chris shrugged his shoulders and said, "Pretty much."

They kicked down the doors and Matt yelled, "Alright Echidra, put down whatever magic you're holding and let Stephen go!" Echidra was standing next to a large cauldron filled with heaven-knows-what. She smiled thinly and said, "Ah, the gallant rescue party have come to save their friend. How heroic, and foolish." Chris loaded his blaster and said, "Hey, we just took out two of your Doom Weapons and have you outnumbered. I say the fight's on our side." Echidra's smile grew and said, "There are only two of you against my might. I still have the advantage." "The others will be here momentarily," said Matt. Right after he said that, the ventilation grate on the ceiling opened and Lilo and Stitch dropped down. Echidra waved a careless hand and said, "The top of this building impossible to enter, even though those other creatures have defeated Fiendglass and Corpselight, they will not come." Chris aimed his blaster and said, "Well, we still have these guns to take you out." Echidra made a sign with her hand and the gun turned itself into a giant leech that immediately attached itself to Chris's face. Naturally, Chris screamed and tried to pull it off.

Echidra laughed and said, "Actually, you came at the right time to see the birth of my new Dracopyre." "We don't care about the Dracopyre, we want Stephen." Echidra tapped her chin thoughtfully and said, "Stephen, Stephen, the human that was transformed into a Dracon by the Drac Omnitrix?" "You were responsible for that too!" yelled Lilo as she yanked the leech off. Echidra ignored that and said, "Well don't worry, your friend's safe. Right in here." She held up a bottle filled with something green that looked like something between liquid and smoke. For a brief second, they could see Stephen's face in it before it faded away. "She's converted Stephen to pure essence!" cried Stitch. Echidra smiled as she uncorked the bottle, "Don't worry, you'll have him back." And she poured the contents into the cauldron.

The cauldron suddenly erupted with magical energy that threw our heroes back. They briefly saw the spirit forms of the various creatures whose essence was in that cauldron. Then the spirits went down into the cauldron and there was a flash of light. After that, the cauldron stood still. Then suddenly, a large three-clawed hand came out of the mouth of the cauldron, followed by another. Then a large shape emerged and let out a cry that sounded like a dragon's roar with the tone of a wolf and the pitch of a bat. "Now you shall face the first of a new line of Dracopyres," said Echidra, "Wyvern, the Reptilian Dracopyre."

Wyvern didn't look too much different from a Dracon, except that his green scales was replaced by fur of the same color. His muzzle looked very similar to a wolf's aside from the strange ridges were perpendicular his lobes. His ears were slightly longer and had a closer resemblance to bat ears. The brown hair on his head had grown longer and partially obscured his eyes, which were red with yellow slits for pupils. Echidra summoned various runes into the air and pointed at our heroes. "Destroy them all, starting with that blond Chihuahua." "Chihuahua?" said Lilo indignantly, but Wyvern making another battle screech and leaping at them, drowning her out.

Wyvern was a more capable fighter than ever. His strength had to at least have been tripled by his transformation and his agility and speed were equivalent to a wolf's. As Chris was batted back by a whack from Wyvern's tail, he said, "Okay, how do we stop him?" "I think we have to sever his connection with Echidra," said Matt, "that'd snap him back to normal." "Don't worry," said Lilo, "I know everything there is to know about werewolves and vampires, he can't surprise us." Suddenly, Wyvern's muzzle split into four along the ridges and his lobes, revealing the hole that opened into his throat. Then a beam of sonic energy came out of it and blasted our heroes. They were scattered around the room by the hit. Stitch groaned and picked himself up saying, "I don't think Echidra used just terrestrial werewolves' essence in that potion." Then the frill-like spine on Wyvern's head glowed yellow and zapped out a lightning bolt. The bolt narrowly missed Matt, who commented, "She didn't just use terrestrial vampires either."

Wyvern was now heading towards Lilo with deadly strikes. She managed to dodge them, but they kept getting more accurate. Stitch in desperation jumped onto Wyvern's back. Wyvern barely noticed the weight and shook until Stitch started to lose his grip. Suddenly something small and hard hit Wyvern on the nose. He looked around for the perpetrator until he saw Matt holding a small rock in his hand. "Why don't you pick on someone your own size?" challenged Matt. Wyvern snapped his neck forward and then back, causing Stitch to fly off and collide into Matt. As Matt got up, he noticed the lights on his inhibitor start to flicker. "_All right,_" said V-627, "_It's almost playtime._" Then Matt heard something in front of him and looked up to see Wyvern's face only two feet away from his own. Wyvern roared loudly, causing Matt's ears to ring and his face to be sprayed with Dracopyre spittle. "_On second thought,_" said V-627,"_I think I'll sit this one out._"

Then Wyvern whacked Matt to the other side of the room with his wing. Matt barely had time to get up when Wyvern spat out his plasma-flame at him. Matt held up his hands, bracing to feel the fiery burn. When it didn't come, he opened his eyes. The plasma-fire was frozen in midair and softly glowing light blue. "Duh," thought Matt, "control over plasma." He stood up and said, "Sorry Stephen," and threw the plasma-fire back at him. The plasma-flames hit Wyvern at the base of the neck, causing Wyvern to shriek with discomfort. As the flames went out, Matt could have sworn he saw the Drac Omnitrix logo flicker a bit and something briefly flashed into visibility between Wyvern and Echidra. Could that have been what Echidra was using to control Wyvern?

Echidra scowled and said, "Change of plans, get the plasmabender first." Wyvern growled and turned his attention towards Matt again. Matt felt a glimmer of an idea creep into his mind and he pointed at his chest saying, "Burn one right here!" Wyvern opened his mouth and belched out plasma-flames. Matt held up his hands and the plasma-fire started forming itself into a concentrated ball. After adding some of his own plasma, Matt said, "What comes around, goes around," and threw it straight into the Drac Omnitrix logo.

The blast was much more spectacular as Wyvern shrieked louder and the scent of burnt fur filled the room. This time, there appeared a glowing red line connecting the Drac Omnitrix to Echidra's runes. Also, Wyvern's eyes switched from red with yellow pupils to yellow with red pupils and back. "It's not just a mind-control spell," said Chris, "it's a leash." Lilo looked at the leash-spell and thought, "Okay, I need a laser to cut through that, something that negates magic." She concentrated on finding such a laser until she was sure she had one. She aimed carefully and let it go. The laser zapped forward and cut the leash-spell in two. Echidra's runes instantly disappeared. Echidra looked at Lilo with a mixture of surprise, anger, and a little bit of astonishment.

At the same time, Wyvern blinked his eyes and they became yellow with red pupils. "What happened?" he asked. Then he noticed the fur covering his body and asked, "What did that witch do to me?" "Not sure," said Matt, "but you want get back at her, now's your chance." Stephen glared at Echidra and split his muzzle open. From the hole that was revealed, he shot out a mixture of plasma-fire and sonic waves at Echidra. Echidra hurriedly put up several shield spells, but they barely withstood the attack. Then Stephen attacked her with his claws and fangs. She only managed to avoid becoming mincemeat by transforming into her half-rotting jackal/half-worm form. She zapped Stephen with a stun spell that threw him on top of Stitch. Echidra glared at Matt and growled, "You and that brat will pay for ruining my new Dracopyre." Then she torn open a dimensional portal and escaped.

"Good riddance," said Matt. "Wonder what we should do with all this?" asked Lilo. Echidra had apparently been in such a rush to leave that she left all her magical equipment behind. "The Dracons will find a use for it," said Chris as he started looking through some of it. Matt frowned and said, "Where's Stitch?" Stephen's face had a sheepish look as he rolled off Stitch. "You okay?" asked Lilo. Stitch sat up and said, "I'm okay, I'm fluffy." Stephen looked at his transformed claws and said, "How are we going to break the spell off of this one?" "Not sure," said Chris as he picked up a younger-looking book, "but I'm sure Echidra's journal can tell us."

There's another chapter. Just one more and this story's done. Then me and largefish8 are going to do something really interesting. Please review. For once.


	6. Essence is the Matter

AOE Saga

The Reluctant Dracopyre

Chapter 5: Essence is the matter

As soon as they heard that Echidra and the Doom Weapons have been defeated, the Dracons flew back to their city. Our heroes were showered with congratulations. Of course, some of the Dracons were a bit wary of Stephen. But that wasn't really surprising since Stephen was a Dracopyre and created by Echidra.

So eventually, the Walking Blades were called to help with the problem. As soon as they came, Stephen was looked over from head to tail. When they were finished, Matt asked, "Can you fix him?" Griffaxe looked sad and said, "I'm not sure if we can. The spells Echidra put on him have not only changed his appearance and powers, but his very essence as well. He's still himself, but there's so much more to him now. We might be able to splice away the essence that doesn't belong to him, but it's strengthened by the science and magic of several planets. Despite its unwanted origins, you have to admire craftsmanship like that. But there is a very good chance that he'll be like that for the rest of his life. And since he's a fusion of dragon, vampire, and werewolf, all of which are known for living very long lives; that could be a couple hundred years. But we've got longer than that and we'll work until we can find something."

Stephen took the news surprisingly well. "I always knew that I was fated for something big, but I didn't ever think of this. I didn't really mind being a Dracon so maybe a Dracopyre isn't all that bad. I don't need to worry about the cold anymore, I can do a little shapeshifting, and who knows what else? But I think I'll stay here on Mysthicos for a while. The Dracons might be able to help me and I really like it here. Besides, I stick out like an infected claw anywhere else." "By the way," said Chris, "how are we going to get off this planet?" "I can arrange that," said a Dracon Elder who was near by.

The Dracon Elder showed the crew of the Ohana a brand-new ship of obviously high tech. It had a cool purple paint job. "This is the Shadow hawk," said the Elder, "it has a similar design to your previous ship, but we've made a magical energy core to power it, in case you have a bad Nullspace connection. I sure you'll find it quite enjoyable as well as useful." While Matt was fawning over it, Morph and Rick both shouted, "Shotgun!" with Rick saying it quicker. "Oh," said Morph disappointedly.

Pretty soon the Shadowhawk was blasting back into space. Matt was at the controls, operating the ship as well as he had the Ohana. "I think I'm gonna like this ship," he said. Then he felt something in his pants. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the crystal he found. "I wonder what this thing does," he said to himself, "must be pretty valuable if the Doom Weapons had it." Suddenly he had an unwanted mental image of Massacrate. He shuddered and wondered if the crystal had anything to do with the curse.

That's the last chapter. Hope you liked the story. The next story will be even better since it'll be a very interesting crossover. Please review. Please.


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